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STRATFORD — Chaz Somers stretches out on the sofa, unfolding his nearly six foot frame, languidly — a sleepy teenager on an end-of-summer day.

It is 3 p.m. and Somers has been awake about an hour or so. Even an iced cappuccino has failed to make him completely alert, he yawns. He is 14 and another sun-drenched afternoon lies before him.

Downtown, tourists and locals mingle, and a light glints off the Avon River where Ryan Butler is working. The outdoor cafes are busy; people are crossing Ontario Street eating ice cream. It’s a perfect job for a 15-year-old, setting up and taking down equipment for the Stratford Summer Music festival, which showcases bluegrass fiddlers and Korean dancers and opera stars including Ben Heppner. Sometimes the performers are in churches, sometimes on a river barge.

A third member of their crowd, Nolan Murray, 15, has spent the afternoon in another summer teenage idyll, riding forest trails on a friend’s all-terrain vehicle. Later he watches a movie, before his mother, Andrea, drives him to his part-time job, washing dishes at Kelsey’s restaurant.

There’s someone missing from this group and his name is Justin Bieber, the 16-year-old pop star who performs tonight at a sold-out concert at the Air Canada Centre. Some tickets were being offered for resale Friday at $515 each. Bieber, with the clear voice, sweet face and shiny sweep of bangs, is touring Canada and the U.S. this year — from state fairs to Madison Square Gardens. He has 4.6 million followers on Twitter; his YouTube video singing with the rapper Ludacris has had 294 million viewings, the most recorded.

Chaz, Ryan and Nolan have been friends with Bieber since elementary school. They are energetic boys, who love being outside and are feeling the first stirring of freedom that comes in the middle teens. Athletic and competitive, they’ve played on hockey and soccer teams together — Ryan’s father, Martin is still their coach. In the team photographs over the years, Ryan and Justin sit next to one another.

Stratford is a city of 32,000, built in the 1840s, with a downtown of handsome 19th-century brick and sandstone buildings and grand houses on spacious lots. It’s full of actors and artists, summer theatre goers and home to the Shakespeare Festival.

There’s not a lot of traffic, and the boys can bike and skateboard along Erie and Downie streets, come home and stay up late watching comical videos.

Bieber’s fame at first caught them unprepared.

Their phones ring day and night, with teenage girls, all fans of Justin Bieber, calling from around the world, Ecuador, Australia, Germany.

“Hi, it’s Ashley. Is Ryan home?”

At Christmas, the Butlers turned their phone off for three days, the calls were incessant.

Last Monday, Chaz’s family had 20 calls from girls struck with Bieber fever.

Nolan’s mother, Andrea, who works in inspection in an aircraft manufacturing plant, found a group of 13-year-old girls outside her house, asking for her son.

“Can I help you?” she asked. “Does Nolan live here?” one of them asked, before they fled down the street. Nolan, meanwhile, is interested in his Norco single-speed bike, which he bought himself and is customizing, with new handles, rims and pedals.

“When we first met I didn’t know he was a singer,” says Chaz, now sitting upright, his MacBook perched on his cut-off jeans. “I knew he was competitive in sports. The first time I heard him sing was the national anthem.”

His family had season tickets to the Stratford Cullitons junior hockey team. His mother, Lee, a quality specialist at an automotive parts factory, was making sure the boys had taken their hats off during O Canada. She was ready to poke the kids who weren’t singing: she looked hard at Bieber, a boy she didn’t know then. “I got goose bumps listening to him. I could have cried.”

When Bieber told Ryan he was going to Atlanta to talk about his music, Ryan didn’t think much about it but wished him luck. He knew Bieber had been busking around Stratford and had posted videos on YouTube.

“I didn’t take it seriously at first, then when I saw he was signing contracts and getting bigger — I was really proud that he put himself out there and that he was found, out of millions of people.”

“Still I was going to miss him and felt sad that he wasn’t able to play sports like other kids and do the usual kid stuff.”

Now their lives have changed as well.

They’ve gone on tour with Bieber, some for as long as three weeks this summer. Ryan, who had his braces removed six months ago, smiles widely as he describes taking a plane to Atlanta on his own. He’s made about 10 trips to visit Bieber in the last 18 months.

He and other Stratford teens were flown to Los Angeles for the singer’s 16th birthday party in March. Some have met Bieber’s new friends. Chaz was astounded to find himself playing basketball with Shaquille O’Neill at his home court. Ryan was calm meeting Miley Cyrus and Will Smith, but when he met Eminem at his Detroit studio, he was admittedly star struck.

“Justin was showing him his music and I was sitting behind, taking it all in.”

“I find all that stuff fun,” says Chaz. “Justin is being such a nice guy to bring us on the road — most of the time he has a friend with him. I found that this summer was one of the best ever. But I was happy to be home. I missed my mom and dad and being with all my friends.”

The boys are deeply protective of their friend.

“Almost every single person I talk to, Justin comes up,” Chaz continues. “Even teachers will ask, ‘how’s your buddy, Justin?’ Some have asked for autographs for their kids or tickets for shows.

“I try to ignore that, not face to face, that would be rude, but sometimes they ask me nonstop. They don’t realize it bugs me. I don’t blame them, it’s an interesting topic, but I get asked all the time.”

None of the boys expressed any deep longing for Justin’s life.

“He’s a millionaire we have to apply for jobs and earn $10 an hour,” says Ryan in a matter of fact way. “But still he’s working hard. Really, I’m more proud than jealous.”

“To be honest, I don’t feel that,” says Chaz. “It’s hard work and I wouldn’t want it. I’m shy. I’d rather do something other than perform in front of 10,000 or more people.

“I keep looking for things I can do better than him, but he’s so good at a lot of things. I’ll show him stuff that I can do and 20 minutes later, he’ll be doing it better than me. Things like a new video game or those finger skateboards.”

They have had to struggle a little with new identities in which they are known as Justin Bieber’s friends on the web and at home. “That’s what I’m known for in Stratford,” says Ryan, the eldest of three brothers. “But I have my own normal life, working and going to school.”

The web has been particularly troublesome for the boys. Hackers have broken into their Facebook, Twitter and email accounts. They’ve had to change their passwords or open new accounts.

Not all the friends Bieber left behind are teen boys. Nathan McKay, 29, is a musician and local music promoter, who was one of the organizers of a benefit concert to buy Bieber, then 8, a set of serious drums in 2002. He saw the boy’s talent — his ability to keep perfect time, beating drum sticks on steps of his church, the way he taught himself piano.

McKay, who attended the same church as Bieber and his mother, works part-time at Zehrs, stocking shelves, and does volunteer work with young musicians in Stratford.

“You hear all kinds of criticism about Justin, but if only people knew. At six he was writing songs about birds, at 13, he was writing about girls …people don’t look at all the hard work he did.”

The boys say they are sure he misses them and their life in Stratford, too.

Their parents, meanwhile, try to keep them content in their own world. “It’s our job to keep him grounded,” says Martin Butler, an internet technology systems administrator.

Chaz’s mother, Lee, remembers when Bieber came to say goodbye before moving to Atlanta in 2008. She spoke to him quietly for a moment about friendship, reminding him obliquely of the strength of his roots — his grandparents still live in Stratford — and childhood bonds.

“People here who know you are your true friends, you will never have to question that.”